Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Calls of Note Part 4

Goldman has a summary of datapoints from the Semi field:

MICROPROCESSORS AND GRAPHICS (INTC+, AMD-, NVDA-)Checks indicate that Intel's quad core roadmap is likely to remain quite competitive through at least 2HCY07, with relatively attractive power per watt metrics. Despite speculation to the contrary, they believe that nVidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) will not participate in either a new video iPod or a redesigned Sony PSP.

ANALOG (IRF+, VLTR-, ISIL-)Checks show International Rectifier (NYSE:IRF) has gained share (mostly likely from Intersil) in server platforms. Firm believes Volterra recently lost a bid for GPU power management to a low-cost competitor from Taiwan.

MEMORY (MU-)Despite checks showing healthy DRAM pricing trends throughout 2006, they believe Micron (NYSE:MU) will not benefit from this pricing strength, and continue to recommend investors go long global DRAM and underweight Micron.

Introducing GPU monitor; CPU and memory monitorsGoldman is also introducing the GPU monitor, which they will use to track near-term demand and inventory trends as with the CPU and memory monitors. Significant price upticks were noted for mainstream GPUs, consistent with strong entry-level PC demand. CPU pricing declined most steeply for AMD notebooks and high-end desktops, likely given competition from Intel.